Netflix Continues to Conquer Pre-Sundance With 'Fundamentals of Caring' Deal

The 2016 Sundance Film Festival is just under a week away, but Netflix has already made clear they are going to be one of the hungriest distributors at Park City. Just days after picking up exclusive worldwide VOD rights to the Ellen Page-starring "Tallulah," the streaming giant has done the same with "Fundamentals of Caring," says The Hollywood Reporter. The SVOD deal is allegedly worth a reported $7 million. Theatrical rights are still available.

Written and directed by Rob Burnett, "Fundamentals of Caring" stars Paul Rudd as a man who becomes a caregiver in the wake of suffering a tragedy. He hits the road with his first client, an 18-year-old with muscular dystrophy (Craig Roberts), and the two quickly form a friendship over a handful of adventures. Selena Gomez also stars.

The film, which is based on Jonathan Evison’s 2013 novel "The Revised Fundamentals of Caregiving," will debut at Sundance on January 29. The festival takes place January 21-31.

Comments

Anne Marie Pacitto
May 12, 2016 1:18 pm

Smart smart smart. Saw this closing night flick. Felt the energy in the audience. It will resonate across the board, with everyone. Not to mention it brings vast attention to the ADA community and that is monumental. Netflix, whatever they’re doing, is my current ballsy smart broad-thinking hero.

@JT & @JONB you’re both right. Firstly, the amount of money a film has to make to be considered a success has risen steadily. It’s not that indies don’t do well in theatrical runs its just they don’t usually make the $100M profit necessary to start a franchise or sell Taco Bell soda cups. To me, if a movie costing $5M makes $10M that is a success… It’s a profit after all. To a studio, this isn’t enough either because they over promoted it and spent their profit or didn’t promote it a lot and don’t want to risk any money on an unsure thing. I’ve often thought it was weird that I can’t get access to lots of films just because they stumble out of the gate in one of the Major markets (limited run in New York or LA, etc). Just because a film does badly in a big city doesn’t mean it won’t have a life elsewhere and grow organically like they did in the old days. Nowadays, it’s sink or swim and if it sinks anybody outside of the major markets don’t even have a chance to see it. Recently, Legend which cost about $30M, was promoted as a national release and due to Stat Wars opened poorly in 100 theaters and because it did so badly it never opened within a three hour radius of my city of 100k. So, yes, Netflix is a great tool to get it out to everybody and not just the elite in big cities but no these films can never achieve the same kind of success and cultural significance if it does not show in a theater.

@JT That’s not true at all. The studios can still handle indies, the problem is that most indies don’t make money. The general public does not want to spend 11-18 bucks (depending on where you live) to go to a theater to watch an indie. The studios are merely delivering what the box office figures have shown people will come out of their homes for. Do I wish studios took more chances on creative films? Absolutely! However, I realize most indies are sit on your couch and watch films , so it makes sense for Netflix to gobble them up. If the customer doesn’t like said film, we all justify it by saying: "well I already paid my monthly fee, good thing I didn’t waste that 15 bucks watching that in the theater"

I’d much rather Netflix gets these kinds of films so we film lovers who don’t live in LA or NY get to see these films. Theatrical is a dinosaur and really has little place any more for most indies. Netflix is doing filmmakers and film lovers a service. The studios just can’t handle anything except tent pole films anymore.

C’mon, studios. Ridiculous to let one of the big films of the festival get snatched up by Netflix. Yes, the theatrical rights are still available, but Netflix will no doubt have this thing streaming the moment its theatrical run ends.